


Little One

by Bam4Me



Series: Little Ones [1]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Baby!Bard, Baby!Beorn, Baby!Tauriel, Battle of Five Armies Fix-It, Dwarves have a culture for ageplay, Everyone Is Alive, First of a series, Gandalf's Staff has a safeguard that turns meddling idiots into babies, Gen, Lake Town Stands Unburnt, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Non-Sexual Age Play, People always make AUs where Thorin and Fili and Kili survive, baby!Bilbo, baby!Legolas, because I fucking can, because of lack of children, but they never stop Lake Town from being burnt???????
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 23:44:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8867929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: Bofur and Thorin have been looking for a little one of their own for a while now. Only issue is, they've finally found someone they really wanted to be it for them, and it's a hobbit. They're not sure if a hobbit would be okay with that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In this series, dwarves are a race that does ageplay, because they don't have many children, like, at all, and so some of them look for littles. It's not a substitute, a lot of couples WANT the littles rather than actual children, some would rather have babies. It's all up to the couple. Thorin (who already has Fili and Kili as his heirs) and Bofur really want a little, someone who won't grow up and be too big for them. (Thorin wasn't all that upset when Fili got too big to be babied, but he struggled a little with it when Kili declared that he wasn't a little boy anymore, not only cause Kili acts younger, but cause he really did always want a little.)
> 
> I have like, fifty seven ideas and WIPs that somehow lead to ageplay in the Hobbit verse, so like, bare with me, this is gonna be a trashy few days, I REALLY wanna try to finish some of them up.
> 
> But yes, this also has ACTUAL de-aging in it, it's not incorrect tagging, people get turned into babies. NO, this is not the full story that happens, and there's gonna tons of one-shots after this, subscribe to the series if you want more. Seriously, don't ask me why this doesn't have more chapters.
> 
> littlesforfandom.tumblr.com

What most other races didn’t realize about dwarves, is that the term, ‘One’ isn’t an exact translation of the Khuzdul word. It was a rough, ‘close enough’ translation that had taken hold.

 

There could be more than one One. In fact, there could be a few. It all makes more sense in Khuzdul than Common.

 

When people asked Thorin Oakenshield, exiled king in the west, who his one is, it was much easier to explain in Khuzdul, because Bofur is, by the traditional definition of the word, his one.

 

That doesn’t mean that Thorin and Bofur aren’t still looking for their other. That’s fine, let the men and elves stay confused, this was no one’s business but their own.

 

Children were rare and few in dwarven culture, but they weren’t entirely lost. Even for couples with only men or only women, dwarves are smart enough to know how babies are made, and they could have children if they wanted, but pregnancy is hard of dwarves, and sometimes doesn’t happen at all.

 

Dwarven women who have easy childbirths, and compassion for others, usually have more than one, if only to further the dwarven race, whether they keep those children for themselves or not. All dwarven children were a gift, and there would always be someone to love them.

 

Still, that does not mean that children were so plentiful that all parents could have one. Which is why they had something else.

 

It was something, equally as precious to them, and entirely loved. They had their ‘Little One’ to fill that painful hole that couldn’t be filled by children.

 

This wasn’t a substitute, some dwarves, in fact, prefered to have a little one over a child, and all of them were deeply loved. And adult who would give themselves to you to be a child that you could keep for so much longer than a real one, a little one, who would love you as long as your one, and ask nothing of you but a loving home and your attention to give to them.

 

Little Ones, just like children, were highly prized in their society, and treated as precious little creature, worthy of love and happiness.

 

Little Ones are amazing. Thorin and Bofur have been looking for one for years.

 

For a long while, the two of them focused on Fili and Kili, the two little boys being the light of many of their lives, little princes and so so young, but they were getting to that age, where even if they _did_ choose to become a little one, later in life, right now, they want their independence and adulthood.

 

They just weren’t into being babied anymore. Not unless they decide they like it more than being an adult, anyways.

 

One of the reasons dwarves were so mistrustful of men and elves -other than elves being sneaky evil creatures- had always been that they simply never understand when dwarves do this. They tend to see it as uncouth.

 

That’s okay, dwarves are quite alright with keeping this to themselves.

 

***

 

Bilbo Baggins was quite a contrary little thing. He was stiffly and proper, but at the same time, he was the only one who could tolerate Fili and Kili who didn’t just think they were cute, and yet, he also refused to take any crap from them as well.

 

He was so so tiny, but he would yell at someone at least twice -if not more- his size, and he didn’t care that dwarves were bigger than him.

 

Thorin valiantly refused to be taken in be how adorable he was. Bofur was having exactly zero luck in that department.

 

“We can’t keep him.”

 

They were standing in the battlements. Bilbo was back in Erebor -after taking a sword to his chest that had been meat for Thorin- with a cracked rib and concussion.

 

Smaug was dead, rotting in the kingdom still while they worked on taking him out, piece by piece, but as it turns out, that hadn’t been the hard part.

 

Bard, the man who had brought aid from Lake Town and convinced the elves to fight -whom Thorin owed his life to probably several times over by now- gave Bofur and Thorin a funny look.

 

As it turned out, not many people seemed to appreciate the way that Thorin had treated the hobbit towards the end of the battle. They were standing in the gateway of Erebor, opened up once more so they could work on moving things out as they needed them. Thorin is pretty sure that Bard was here to see Gandalf.

 

“Do you still not realize how much the hobbit loves all of you? Are you really so cruel as to turn him away again?”

 

Bard was a better man than most of them were.

 

Thorin sighed, stepping to the side as two dwarves came through, carrying what looked like part of Smaug’s tail on a push cart between them. It smelled exactly as gross as you thought it might.

 

“That’s not what I meant, _man_ , Bilbo has wanted to go home since the beginning of this quest. He served his part, we have no reason to keep him any longer, if he wants to leave, he can.”

 

Bard shook his head, looking like he pitied the dwarf. “Have you asked him what he wants? People are _allowed_ to change their minds. He might surprise you.”

 

The man stalked off without another word, finally catching sight of Gandalf -with the hobbit in question- and going off in their direction to talk with them.

 

Thorin and Bofur exchanged another look, Thorin’s chidding, and Bofur’s pleading. “No, Bofur, you know it’s a bad idea. Hobbits aren’t like dwarves, he might freak out like men and elves do when they find out. I know you like him, but he’s just not a little one.”

 

Bofur rolled his eyes in the other direction, looking annoyed, a rare thing for him. “Right, and you wouldn’t have even known I wanted to be with you unless I said anything. Bard’s right, we should at least talk to him.”

 

Before Thorin could protest again, they heard what sounded like a large crack coming from the direction that Bard had gone with Gandalf and Bilbo and took off to go see what that was.

 

What they found, was not what they were expecting.

 

“Where did all these children come from- is that a bear?” Thorin cut himself halfway through the sentence when he found himself staring down at what looked like an angry bear cub, and wondered if he’d have to get the other dwarves crowding into the door to help him lead it outside without it hurting anyone, because if he killed it, Kili would cry at him about it for at least a day.

 

Gandalf -who seemed to be knocked over onto the ground for some reason, and was standing up with the help or Dori and Dwalin- let out a small groan. “That’s Beorn, I suppose.”

 

“You suppose? What?”

 

Bofur elbowed the king in the side, and when Thorin grunted in reply, he pointed off to the other random children scattered about the room. “Any of those look familiar to you? I could have sworn that one looks just like that elf guard.”

 

Kili and Fili came into the room behind them, nearly knocking Thorin over to get at all the children in the room, who looked just as baffled as the rest of them. “Tauriel is a small baby now! Tiny!”

 

Of course, that was Kili, because he was apparently, smarter, and dumber than his uncle, in equal parts. “That’s not… oh my god, Gandalf, what happened?”

 

Gandalf walked over to the middle of the group of children, and looked around at all of them. “My staff is not to be trifled with.”

 

Thorin turned to look at where the growling little bear cub was making his way over to the red haired elf guard, and she just looked at him with a trepidation, but ultimately let him sit down next to her, looking tired.

 

God, even elf babies were adorable.

 

“So… you turned them all into babies?”

 

Kili, who never had the patience to wait for… anything, at all, was already moved over so he could poke at what Thorin could only assume was Bard, the tiny little brooding man child who gave Kili an immediate pout, trying to crawl away from him, which makes sense, because he was only just old enough to crawl at all. None of them looked very old, actually.

 

“I didn’t do it, my staff did it. Someone was messing with it, and I’m actually not sure who.”

 

Bard suddenly let out a loud wail, when Kili didn’t get the hint and back off right away from touching him, and it seemed to set off a chain reaction in the others, Tauriel starting to sniffle and breath heavy at the perceived threat, and Beorn was looking tetchy again, rubbing at his eyes with a big paw.

 

Another, who Thorin could only assume was the prince Legolas, started crying out, much like Bard, big hitching sobs coming out of his little chest while he fisted at his eyes, looking tired and cranky.

 

But the real surprise, came when Bofur bodily nudged -that’s a polite way to put it- Thorin out of the way and took a look at the last little one in the room, tucked up in a corner behind Thorin and having escaped notice until now. “Bilbo?”

 

The little baby hobbit looked up at Bofur, his lower lip wobbling dangerously. He took in a few hitched breaths, but like Tauriel, he didn’t break out into sobs, just raised two little shaky arms for the miner to pick him up, and Bofur did without pause, letting the other dwarves move to take care of the other little ones while he took Bilbo into his arms, shushing him while Thorin sort of kept on giving them this dumb look like he still wasn’t fully sure what was going on.

 

This, was great. Really, so much better than any of them expected. Oh boy.

 

***

 

So, the babies were going to be fine… if a bit… small… for a while…

 

Bofur is pretty sure that Thorin might still be in shock, because the king had sat down about ten minutes ago, and he’s just been blinking at his hands since then.

 

Great.

 

Tauriel and Bard had been suitably calmed down, but the two of them wouldn’t let anyone hold them, choosing instead, to play with Beorn, who was stoically taking their manhandling and petting with all the grace of a ten year old dog who’s being played with by a baby. It was amazing. Bofur wondered if he could transform back at all right now, or if he simply doesn’t want to. He seemed fine though, just snuggling with the little elf and man.

 

Legolas, on the other hand, wasn’t very well soothed as the others, and was being calmed down, but Gloin, of all people. Gloin may not like elves, but he was a good parent, and he knew how to soothe a whimpering littlun. Bofur always wondered if him and his wife would try and find a little one when Gimli was too old to be babied by them anymore.

 

Gandalf said that he’s sure they’ll resize eventually…

 

For now, they only had to wait. They’ve sent word out to Dale, where quite a few wounded were being held still after the battle, to send Bard’s children, and the elven king up to the mountain.

 

Oh, the dwarves are _so_ looking forward to speaking with the elven king.

 

Tauriel -who was still fairly wary of Kili, who was getting glared at by both her and Bard if he came too close to them, which made everyone else laugh, because he wanted to play with the babies- seemed to be big enough to say a few words, but she wasn’t exactly putting together sentences. Legolas was a bit smaller, maybe young enough to need help with things like eating. None of them were gonna guess how old Beorn might be. Bard could crawl, and probably eat on his own, but talking wasn’t happening anytime soon.

 

Bilbo seemed to have crying down pretty well, in fact, he was the best out of all of them at it! Though, Bofur couldn’t even begin to guess hold old he might be, because he was still small enough to fit in the crook of Bofur’s arm without taking up any room. Bofur was afraid to put him down, in case someone didn’t see him and he got hurt.

 

Hobbits were already very good at keeping out of sight, Bofur is afraid to lose sight of this one at all.

 

He walked over to where Thorin was sitting on a pile of rubbish, and kicked him in the side. Not hard… well, not hard to a dwarf.

 

Thorin grunted in response, and Bofur kicked him again, getting him to look up at them. Bofur dropped the baby in his arms without any preamble, and sat down next to him while Thorin gave him a horrified look.

 

God, you’d think the dwarf never held a baby before.

 

Bilbo looked up at him, as if he was maybe possibly thinking of crying a little bit again, and Thorin couldn’t help but melt at the sight of him. “Hello, little one.”

 

He couldn’t help the words slipping out, though he knew that the probably didn’t mean the same thing to a hobbit as a dwarf, he gave the hobbit a big grin when Bilbo smiled toothily up at him, wriggling a little in his arms for a more comfortable spot.

 

Well, this could probably get better. It could probably also have gotten worse.

**Author's Note:**

> littlesforfandom.tumblr.com


End file.
